2016 Spring Conference - Speakers

Kent Anderson

Vice President of Business DevelopmentIndiana Economic Development Corp.Slides|Video

Mr. Kent Anderson has been the Vice President of Business Development at Indiana Economic Development Corp. since March 2014. Mr. Anderson joined the state's job hunting agency in January 2012 as the director of international business development, spearheading the state's efforts to attract and retain companies from around the world. In addition, he oversaw the restructuring and streamlining of the IEDC's international footprint. Mr. Anderson served tours with the Indiana National Guard in Iraq and the U.S. Navy during the Gulf War. In addition, he planned and implemented logistics processes for German luxury carmaker AUDI AG at its Ingolstadt, Germany headquarters and served with Switzerland-based Georg Utz, Inc. as its first general manager of North American operations. Most recently, Mr. Anderson lead the Columbus Area Metropolitan Planning Organization. Mr. Anderson is a 1990 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and holds a master of international business studies from the University of South Carolina's Moore School of Business.

David Hummels

Dean and Professor of EconomicsKrannert School of Management, Purdue UniversitySlides

David Hummels began serving as the Dean of the Krannert School of Management in 2015. In his faculty life, Professor Hummels teaches courses in International Economics, and has won multiple teaching awards at the graduate and undergraduate level. His research focuses on a broad range of issues in international trade, including: offshoring, product differentiation, barriers to trade and the broader impacts of aviation, infrastructure, and trade facilitation on trade and economic development. He has published 4 books and over 40 research articles in major economic journals including American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Review of Economics and Statistics, the Journal of International Economics, and the Journal of Economic Perspectives. Professor Hummels is a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, an Associate Editor of the Journal of International Economics, and an Associate Director of the Forum for Research on Empirical International Trade. He has worked as a consultant for and visiting scholar at a wide variety of central banks, development banks and policy institutes around the world. He previously worked as an assistant professor of economics at the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business.

Eyal Barash

Eyal Barash is an Indiana University chemistry department alum (’91). Eyal received his M.S. in physical chemistry from Berkeley and a law degree from Northwestern. After practicing for 8 years in Washington, D.C. at a large patent law firm, he returned to his native West Lafayette. Barash currently serves as the chief IP counsel for Endocyte, Inc., a publicly-traded biopharmaceutical company developing targeted therapies for serious diseases.

Eduardo Huerta-Mercado

Eduardo Huerta-Mercado is currently Director of Operations for River Logistics in Lima, Peru. He is also the Director of Latin American Operations for Softeon Inc., an International Consultant Public Sector for the World Bank, and CEO at Value Chain Consulting & Technology.

Brent Yeagy

Mr. Brent Yeagy was appointed to Group President, Commercial Trailer Products on June 1, 2013. Yeagy joined Wabash National in 2005 as Director of Manufacturing and has held a number of positions of increasing responsibility, most recently serving as Vice President and General Manager of Commercial Trailer Products. Prior to Wabash National, he held the position of Director of HR/EHS at Delco Remy International from 2001 to 2003 and Manager of HR/EHS from 1998 to 2001. From 1994 to 1998, Yeagy was a Senior Engineer/Facilities Maintenance Manager at Rexnord. He also served as a Machinist Mate/Officer Candidate in the United States Navy from 1991 to 1994. Yeagy holds a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Engineering Science and a Master of Science in Occupational Heath and Safety Engineering from Purdue University, as well as an MBA in Business Management from Anderson University.

Edward Gresser

Director of Policy Planning, Acting AssistantUSTR for Economics and PolicyVideo

Ed Gresser joined the GlobalWorks Foundation as Director of the ProgressiveEconomy project on February 15, 2011. One of America’s most influential trade analysts, he has conducted path-breaking research on the American tariff system and its effects on low-income American families and poorer nations, trade relations with the Muslim world, Asian economic integration and other topics. His research has been covered by major media outlets including the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Financial Times, the Far Eastern Economic Review and others, and been cited by leaders of the World Trade Organization, the World Bank, the IMF and other institutions. His first book, Freedom From Want: American Liberalism and the Gobal Economy, was published in 2007. He also created and edits ProgressiveEconomy’s widely praised “Trade Fact of the Week” electronic information service. Gresser came to GlobalWorks after two years at the Democratic Leadership Council, where he served as Trade and Global Markets Director and as interim President during the permanent CEO’s leave of absence in 2010. Before joining DLC, Mr. Gresser was Trade and Global Markets Director for the Progressive Policy Institute from 2001 to 2009. From April 1998 through the close of the Clinton Administration in 2001, he served as Policy Advisor to U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky. In this position he was the USTR’s principal policy advisor, speechwriter and research aide. In a span of three years, Mr. Gresser twice received USTR’s prestigious “Special Achievement Award,” first for contribution to passage of the African Growth and Opportunity Act and Caribbean Basin Initiative enhancement, and then for accomplishment “far above and beyond the call of duty” in the negotiation of China’s WTO accession agreement and passage of permanent Normal Trade Relations. Earlier, as Legislative Assistant and then Policy Director for Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) between 1993 and 1998, Mr. Gresser was responsible for trade and foreign policy, with a particular focus on relations with China, as well as domestic extremism and “militia” issues. Before joining Baucus' staff, Mr. Gresser worked for the consulting firm Podesta Associates, and as Legislative Assistant for Congressman Silvio Conte of Massachusetts. Mr. Gresser graduated from Stanford University with Distinction in Political Science in 1984. He earned a Master’s Degree from Columbia University and a Certificate from the Averell Harriman Institute for Advanced Study of the Soviet Union in 1987. He is married to Siriporn Gresser, and they have one son.